The Demons Within
by dragonlady421
Summary: A new team from Kumogakure comes to Konoha for an experiment run by the Hokage. Their secrets and demons follow them with interesting results
1. Introduction

So this is my first submitted fan fiction. I appreciate any comments that you might have just no flames please. This was supposed to take place after the chunin prelims, but that wouldn't work so it's in a universe of my own creation.

I don't own Naruto

Sora

I looked at the bright blue morning sky. It would be a warm day. _Good. Less to worry about_. She walked over to where her teammates were finishing breakfast.

"Ready to go? We're going to be late. Again." I smiled. They were forever making her wait for them. I surveyed the scene. Michiko was already done and glaring at her brother. Ryuu was still eating. "I swear you would eat all day if I let you"

"I'm a big person, I need to eat a lot. As you well know Sora."

Of course he was right. He was a good foot taller then me and could throw me like a spear if he wanted. He never tried though. In direct opposition was his sister. Michiko was shorter then me and slim. But she was as tough as any man. They were twins. Both had the same brown eyes, but she had long black hair and he had short blond hair.

"Even when he was small he still ate like that. Let's just leave him here. I'm sure he can catch up later." Michiko had a bit of a mischievous streak to say the least.

"Fine, I'm done" He scraped the last of the food off the plate and shoved it in his bag.

"I'm surprised you didn't lick it clean. Well let's get moving. First day in a new village don't want to make a bad impression." I started walking towards the road.

"Right. As if they could forget what happened last time a ninja from Kumo was her." Always devil's advocate Michiko. Last time the ninja from Kumogakure was at Konoha he had tried to kidnap the heir to the Hyuga clan to get the secrets of the Byakugan. He had been killed and the head of the family was demanded as retribution. Instead his brother from the branch family was sacrificed. Messed up family if you asked me. But the whole situation was terrible. My teammates and I and about three quarters of our village were pissed off about the whole thing.

"Well we didn't have any part in that, so maybe they won't be mad at us."

"Ryuu, Ryuu, Ryuu. Always the optimist. Although, I hope you're right." I did, but chances were not in our favor for that. The two Hyugas in the group we were going to meet were closely involved in it. One was the heiress that was going to be kidnapped and the other was the son of the sacrificed brother. Odds were that they wouldn't be waiting with open arms. More like closed fists. Or whatever the equivalent was with their fighting style.

"Let's go and find out, shall we? I'm sure we could take them." Michiko said with a smile. "I'm always looking for some unlucky saps to practice my jutsus on and Ryuu stopped volunteering."

I just rolled my eyes and kept walking. Sometimes the small ones are the ones that would get you. Michiko was one of those. It amazed me. I suppose I was the average one of the bunch. In the loosest sense of the term. Average height and weight with short white hair and greenish yellow eyes. The white hair was a result of an unfortunate accident. At least that's what I tell people. You start telling people it's the result of having a biju sealed in you and they tend to start freaking out on you. That's right. A biju. The Raiju to be exact. Just your standard lightning biju. It was usually harmless. Except during thunderstorms when it would go insane and attack anything unlucky enough to be outside. Which include houses and the people inside after it tore a few walls down. Some people heard about the success of Konoha and Suna with sealing biju inside people and tried it with me. Fun stuff.

The path curved off into the forest.

"Good place for an ambush, but that's just my paranoid side talking." She didn't have a paranoid side really. Just a penchant for stating the obvious which got somewhat annoying. Although it could be a good thing sometimes.

I glanced back at her to see if she meant some thing by it but she just grinned at me. She was just trying to get my paranoid side going. Just to show her it wouldn't work, I just kept going.

"Nothing. Besides the gate to the village is right here. Why would anyone attack us on the path when they could wait until we go in and have an army to attack us?"

"The real question is why did we camp outside when the village was so close?" Ryuu complained.

"Because we would have had to find some place to stay and I just didn't want to do that." I also didn't want to talk to any more people then was necessary.

"Well, we're here. Now how do we get in?" Michiko said, being sensible as usual.

As if in answer to her question a ninja stepped on to the path in front of us.

"Who are you and what is your business here? Going to kidnap someone else? Maybe an Uchiha this time?"

I would have laughed if wasn't so shocked. Apparently some still remembered.

"We came with permission from the Hokage." I said

"For the experiment." Ryuu added.

"Fine. You will want to go on the left street. The building is at the end of the third block. There should be people there waiting for the participants." With that he puffed off and the gates opened. We went on the left road as he said. We were here for an experiment Konoha was hosting. They were going to stick a bunch of genin in one building and see what happened. There would be tests and challenges along the way to see how living together would affect our ninja skills.

"He was right. There it is and there are some people out here." More obviousness from Michiko. There were three ninja and an older man who must be the Hokage. Two of the ninja were men. One had messy silver hair and a black mask over the bottom half of his face. The other had bowl cut black hair and was arguing with the silver haired ninja. The female had brown hair and was leaning against the wall looking bored. As we got closer she looked up at us. Her eyes were bright red. She elbowed the silver haired ninja who looked in our direction also.

"So, are we late?" I didn't see anyone else and was concerned.

They looked at me surprised. Finally the Hokage answered me.

"No you're actually early. We weren't expecting anyone for a few minutes yet. This is Hatake Kakashi who will be one of the ninja running the experiment." He gestured toward the silver haired ninja who gave a little wave in our general direction.

"Glad you decided to participate. This is Yuhi Kurenai who will be the other one." He pointed at the woman.

"Everyone should be arriving soon you can go inside. Our teams are in there. I'm sure they'd love to meet you all." She seemed nice enough but the last statement seemed some what forced.

We proceeded through the front door into what seemed to be the living room. Six ninja were lounging on the various chairs. Three others were sitting on the stairs. I saw immediately why Kurenai didn't sound sincere in her last statement. The two Hyuga ninja were here.

"Hi! I'm Uzumaki Naruto. You must be the ninja from Kumo." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Michiko cringe. They would have found out sooner or later. At the mention of Kumo, I saw the heads of the Hyugas pop up and turn in our direction. The girl merely looked curious, but the boy glared at us.

"Naruto would you calm down!" The pink haired girl standing next to Naruto smiled in our dirction. "I'm Haruno Sakura and this is Uchiha Sasuke." She pointed to the black haired boy standing on the other side of Naruto.

"So you guys are here for the experiment too. Who are you anyway?" He didn't sound happy to be meeting us.

"I'm Amatsuarashi Sora, and this is Iwakami Ryuu and Iwakami Michiko."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Hyuga Hinata." The girl had walked over to us with the rest of her team. There was no hostility in her voice. Maybe one Hyuga didn't blame us.

"I'm Inuzuka Kiba, this is Akamaru and this is Aburame Shino." Shino merely nodded in our direction and went to sit back down. Akamaru was perched on top of Kiba's head. I glanced at Michiko. She loved dogs.

"Nice to meet you all! So Kiba, Akamaru is your dog?"

"He's more then that. He's practically a brother to me" It was then that the three on the stairs decided to come to see us. One them looked almost exactly like the black haired ninja from outside.

"Hello. I am Rock Lee and this is Tenten and Hyuga Neji." The girl smiled at us and was about to say something when Neji interrupted.

"So you're from Kumogakure are you? Are you here to try and kidnap another ninja? I wouldn't stick around if I were you."

"Is that a threat?" Ryuu stepped in front of him. Neji took a step back. Ryuu had that effect. At about six foot tall anyone would.

"No, just something to keep in mind." With that, he turned and walked away.

"Don't worry about him. He's just mad about what happened with the ninja from your village. He's still sore on that subject." Tenten brushed off Neji's statements effortlessly. She must have had practice.

"Yeah I'll bet. It's still a sore subject back home. We lost one of our best ninja because some power grubbing idiot decided they wanted the secrets of the Byakugan" Michiko would continue ranting if someone didn't stop her. Luckily another team walked in the door.

"Oh, Ino! Come meet the cloud ninja. This is Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Choji." Tenten waved the group over and introduced us. Ino was very talkative while her teammates didn't say much. After a few minutes, Kakashi, Kurenai and the Hokage walked in. Everyone stopped talking and waited for them to say something. Kakashi started counting heads.

"Fifteen. Who's missing? Oh right. We're still waiting for the sand team. Well in the meantime chat amongst yourselves." Kakashi went to talk Kurenai and the Hokage.

"The sand team? So we're not the only foreign team?" I was somewhat relieved. We wouldn't be the only ones adjusting to a new country.

"No you're not. But I'd rather that you were." Kiba walked up behind us.

"Really? Why? I'm sure they can't be that bad." Michiko cut straight to the heart of the issue. What _was_ wrong with them?

"Well not if you like homicidal maniacs. The team is made up of a maniac and his two crazy teammates. Not exactly what I would like to live with."

Gaara

"Kankuro, Temari, hurry up." I looked at the sun. "Nine fifteen. We're already late."

"So what? They can't start without us. If we're already late we might as well take our time." Kankuro. Always the lazy one.

"Oh for the love of…. Just hurry up Kankuro. I would rather get there somewhat on time. Stop being such a lazy ass." Temari at the very least agreed with me. "It doesn't really matter any way. It's right over there."

We walked into the building and saw that everyone was already there.

"Ah. That's everyone. We can get started then." Kakashi was running the show apparently. "Well I'd like to thank everyone for being here and thank our two foreign teams for coming out here."

"_Two _foreign teams?" I muttered to Temari. I thought we would be the only one.

"Who cares?" She never did.

While we were talking the other team was brought up. Two girls and a guy. That was different. They didn't look too pleased at being up there.

"As most of you know this is Amatsuarashi Sora, Iwakami Michiko and Iwakami Ryuu. And the sand team, Temari, Kankuro and Gaara."

We examined each other carefully. The last two looked perfectly normal, but something about the first girl, Sora, was strange. The first thing that struck me were her eyes. They were the color of the sky before a big storm. Her hair was pure white. Odd for someone as young as us. There was a scar on her right forearm that stretched from underneath her sleeve to under her metal backed glove. She looked me straight in the eye and walked back into the crowd. Her teammates followed her. Apparently introductions were over. My teammates and I walked off to the back corner.

"Ok so. I'm sure you all want to know what is going on here so I'll let the Hokage fill you in." Kakashi stepped aside to let the Hokage take over.

"This is an experiment to see how you all respond to living, working and training together. You will do your own cleaning, cooking and laundry. The splitting of these chores will be decided amongst yourselves. Kakashi and Kurenai will be keeping an eye on you and will be administering the various tests throughout the experiment. They will now assign your rooms." The Hokage then left.

Kurenai stepped forward. "The girls will be on the first floor and the boys on the second. You will each have your own room although you will have to share bathrooms. Your belongings have already been put in your rooms. Girls come see me and boys go see Kakashi for your room assignments and keys." The group split and went to their perspective person to get the key to their room. I ended up being in room 7. Not that it really mattered. It's not like I sleep anyway.

Sora

"So which room are you in Michiko?" There were only 8 rooms on the main floor but I hoped she was close to me.

"Room 3. What about you?"

"2 right next to you." Fortune was with me today. For once.

"Sora, Naruto and Gaara. please come over here." Kakashi called out across the room. Why did he need to talk to us? I threaded my way through the crowd and headed over to Kakashi. The blond boy from before was there along with the red head from the sand team. He looked at me and I saw that he had no pupils. He also had dark circles around his eyes and a strange symbol on his forehead. As I got closer I saw that it was the symbol for love. It seemed in direct opposition to the cold look in his eyes. And strangely enough, he carried a huge gourd on his back.

"The three of you have…. Special circumstances. I expect you to keep yourselves in check. You each know what I'm talking about." I knew exactly what Kakashi was talking about. The biju. What the special circumstances were for the other two I had no idea. We started to walk back to our respective groups when I caught Gaara examining me. I imagine he was as puzzled about me as I was about him.

"What? You have a problem?" I wasn't usually so defensive, the look in his eyes just gave me the creeps.

"No, I don't. I was curious about why Kakashi needed to talk to you" His voice was as cold as his stare. Over all creepiness, check.

"Right well. That's for me to know and you to… not." I walked back to my group as quickly as I could with out running. "Shall we go settle in?"

"Yes we shall." Michiko started laughing and we walked off with Ryuu rolling his eyes at our antics. We quickly made our way to our rooms.

"Well let's see what evil things we will be using as rooms." I unlocked the door and slowly opened it. The room wasn't big but it was comfortable. The walls were plain white and the carpet was grey. So very boring. There was a desk, dresser, bed and weapon rack. The desk and dresser already had my things in the various drawers and my various weapons in the rack. I stepped back in the hall and looked into Michiko's room. It was the same as mine.

"Everything in order?" I knew she would be checking to see that all of her things would be alright.

"Yep. Let's go check the rest of this place." We locked up our rooms and walked back to the living room. There were two doors in one wall and one on another. We went through the first door to the kitchen. It was a large room with plenty of counter space, a large 8 burner stove and an industrial size refrigerator.

"That is a big fridge." Michiko read my thoughts.

"It would have to be. We have some big eaters here." We turned around and saw Shikamaru lounging against the far wall. "Especially Choji. My teammate."

"We have her brother, Ryuu. Eats more then anyone I've ever seen."

Shikamaru laughed. "Not more then Choji. He never stops eating. Well see you around." He walked out the door.

We followed him out and went through the next door. It was a large dining room. There were two cafeteria style tables with 9 seats apiece.

"I guess the senseis won't be dining with us"

"Michiko with the obviousness again."

We left and went through the final door. This was a training area with dummies, weights and everything.

"Nice and all but those smoke detectors and sprinklers could be troublesome if anyone uses any fire jutsus." The thought alone was hilarious.

We went upstairs to see what was up there. It turned out to be another living area in the middle of all the boys' rooms. We then went to see our bathroom. It was locker room style with lockers along one wall, toilet stalls along another, and sinks and mirrors along the third. A door way in the fourth wall led to the shower stalls.

"Let's go see the back yard. It ought to be more interesting then this." I just wanted to go outside but it probably would be more interesting.

"But where's the door outside. There has to be a back yard. Some jutsus are too dangerous to be practiced inside. Especially some of yours. You could blow the place up." She was right as usual.

"Some of yours as well. I think I saw a door in the training room. Let's go."

We went to the training room. There was a door. We went through it to the back yard. It was surprisingly large. There was a clear area right by the building and further out there were many large trees and a pond. It was actually very pretty.

"Hey guys! I've been looking for you." Ryuu stepped out of the door. "So what do you think of this place?"

"It sucks. After all you're here." Michiko grinned as Ryuu shot her a glare. "In all honesty, it's not bad."

"It's better then where I was." They knew what I meant.

"Really? Where were you?" We spun around to see Sakura standing by the door. "Well whatever. Kakashi-sensei is asking us to gather in the living room. Thought you all should know." We followed her into the living room where the last of the people were gathering.

"Now that you're all here. So tomorrow you can divide up the chores, but you don't need to worry about the cooking. That will be taken care of. For dinner tonight you all are on your own. You may do whatever you want."

Like a flash everyone except us and the sand team left. After the shock wore off we looked at each other.

"I guess they know where their going. That would be nice to know." I hated being new in town and without a map.

"Well we might as well head out. I'm hungry."

"Ryuu, you're always hungry." Michiko led the charge out the door and on to the streets of Konoha. The rest of us followed her lead.

"So have you been in town long enough to know where your going?" I figured I might as well ask them.

"We've been here a little while, but we've been busy." Temari answered.

"Oh well. I wonder if Michiko has any idea where she's going. Hey! Michiko, wait up!" I ran to catch up to her.

Gaara

Those cloud ninja were nuts. Then again, so were the leaf ninja. I almost missed Suna. Almost.

"Those two are crazy. Although they're pretty good looking. I'd like to get to know them really well. If you know what I mean." Kankuro wasn't known for his subtly.

Before I could blink Ryuu had grabbed him the front of his shirt and was holding him up in the air.

"If you even think about that sort of thing with them I'll make you wish you were born a girl." Ryuu was practically growling at him.

"Alright, alright. Calm down. What? Is one of them yours?"

"Good job Kankuro. Make the man mad. Let's see what happens. Could be fun to watch." I had to get in a good jab before he got killed.

"God no! One of them is my sister and the other one is like a sister. Uh. Gross." Ryuu shuddered. Guess I wasn't the only one traveling with family. He dropped Kankuro and he fell on the ground.

"So Michiko is your sister. Same last name. She must be your twin or you wouldn't be in the same team. Although you look completely different." Temari was being smart today. First time for while.

"Yah she is. She looks like our mother and I look like our father."

"Hey what are you guys doing back there? We found a place to eat! Hurry up!" Sora yelled back at us. She was quite loud. We caught up to her and saw a small ramen shop. The loudmouth blond and his team were there. Great.

"It isn't much but I would rather eat sooner rather then wander around for ages." Sora was right. I was hungry too.

We ate talking mostly about "safe" topics, the weather, the other people, the food, etc. Only Michiko and Ryuu talked about their past. That was fine with me; I'd rather not talk about that. It was weird that Sora didn't talk about her past. Might be nothing.

We headed back to the building which was only a short walk. When we got to the building Sora looked at it, counting something.

"Three. Hmm." I had no idea what she was talking about. "Well, bye!" She walked into the building.

"What was she talking about?" Even Michiko didn't know. Sora was crazy.

Most of us shrugged and headed into the building and to our rooms. I figured I'd wait until everyone was asleep and then go check out the building. Hope no one is a night owl.

Sora

There were definitely three stories on the building. But I didn't see any stairs on the second floor. They must have shut off that floor. We really didn't need it after all, but I still had to see it. I would wait until everyone was asleep to go investigate. I needed something to do so I started to polish my weapons. Naginata, kusarigama, katana, chain whip and sai. It finally sounded like everyone was asleep so I headed up to the second floor. I looked around. There were no signs of any stairs. They must have covered the stairs with a wall. I started knocking on the walls to find a hollow section. I had just found the section when Gaara walked out of his room.

"Don't you sleep?" I thought everyone had been asleep.

"No actually I don't. Why are you still awake?" He didn't sleep. What a weirdo.

"Well I'm looking for the third floor."

"There is no third floor."

"Actually there is. If you look on the outside of the building you can see three floors. I think the stairs are behind this wall." He just looked on in disbelief as I started to kick a hole in the wall.

"Let me. You'll never get through it." He closed his eyes for a moment. Sand streamed from under a door, punched a hole in the wall then went back.

"So you control sand?" He nodded. "Hmm. Thanks." I looked through the wall and saw stairs. Pulling away some of the plaster I made a hole big enough to get through and started up the stairs. "You coming?"

Gaara reluctantly followed me through. We made our way up the stairs.

"Dammit! I can't see any thing." I reached my hand out until I found a light switch. When I flicked it on, we were standing in an empty room with a door in one wall.

"I guess you'll want to see in that door." He opened the door and we went in. The room was filled with boxes. There were windows in two of the walls. I opened one of the windows.

"Good. I can climb to the roof through these." I proceeded to do so with Gaara following.

"Why is that good?" It was natural for him to be curious.

"Well back home my sister and I used to go on the roof and look at the stars and talk and whatever. It was just a tradition with us. Kind of stupid, I know, but I feel connected to her when I do it."

"Where is she? Back at your village?"

"No. She died a year ago."

"Oh. What happened?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"That bad? I'm not that close with my siblings, but I suppose I'd miss them if they were gone. What about the rest of your family?"

"Which part? One part died and the other part blames me for that. I shouldn't have told you that." More questions then I really need.

"I won't say anything to anyone else. It's not my story to tell anyway."

"Thanks. So what about your family? Besides Temari and Kankuro that is."

"I don't consider them family anymore."

"Really? Care to share that story?"

"Not really. Your village is notorious for spreading gossip."

"That's only the old house wives. They get word around pretty fast. Hey, maybe you can clear something up. We heard a story about something that happened in your village. About how the Kazekage used his wife as a sacrifice to seal a biju in his youngest son for a weapon and then years later saw him as a threat and tried to have him killed. Any truth to the rumor?"

He looked at me in shock and then looked away. Something was up.

"I don't know. I never heard about it." Then he left. There was something he wasn't telling me. I sat for a few more minutes then left. I closed the window. Turned out the light and shut the door. After I went down the stairs I realized the problem. The hole.

"Go to bed. I'll take care of it." I spun around to see Gaara standing there.

"How?"

"I'll use sand to cover up the hole. Easy enough."

"Fine." I left him to it. I went downstairs to the kitchen to get something to drink then went to my room. I wondered what Gaara was hiding. I could always get it out of his sister or something. I decided to think about it in the morning. I changed in to some pajamas and went to bed. All in all it was a good day. I even think that Gaara could be a good friend to have for all his so called homicidal maniacism and coldness.


	2. 2 and 2

The Demons Within

Chapter 2

Ryuu

I sat straight up in bed. Something was making a lot of noise. I looked at the clock. Six fifteen AM. I was going to find whatever was making the noise, kill them and then go back to sleep. Needless to say, I am not a morning person. One of the few I share in common with Michiko. I got out of bed and walked out of the room. Most of the guys were coming out of their rooms looking around in confusion. Kiba came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around him, Akamaru trailing behind him.

"You couldn't have put some clothes on?" It was Shino. First time I ever heard him talk.

"No. What the fuck was that?" We all just shrugged. "Well let's go see if we can find out." Kiba led the charge downstairs. The girls were all coming out of their rooms too. All except for Sora and Michiko. They could sleep through anything. Lucky them.

"Do you guys know what that was? Oh and Kiba. Put some clothes on would ya?" Kiba glared at her and we all said we had no idea.

"Oh I bet I know what it was!" Naruto pushed through the others. "Yesterday I was talking to some woman about the experiment and she wanted to know where it was so I told her and she knew the place and she said that it was haunted!"

We all looked at one another and burst out laughing. There is no such thing as ghosts.

"No seriously! Apparently this family lived here and the husband was an abusive bastard and one day the woman had enough and killed him and left with her kids."

"Well it sounds likely enough. I guess." Shikamaru said from somewhere in the crowd. "Those kinds of bastards deserve to die." Many agreed. I didn't

"No. They deserve worse then death. It's too easy a way out. Let's go see if we can find what made the noise." I'd rather know what made it then talk about this anymore. It hit too close to home.

"Let's check the kitchen first. It's the most likely place." Sakura took charge and led us into the kitchen where we saw Kakashi cooking.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura had the funniest puzzled look on her face.

"Oh hi. I was just starting breakfast. If you were wondering about that noise it was me. Sorry if I woke you up." He turned back to what he was doing.

"See Naruto. No ghosts." Sakura turned and left. We all followed her grumbling about being woken. When we got in the hallway, Michiko and Sora were there.

"What's everyone doing out here so early? Oh god. Kiba put some clothes on!" Sora said.

Kiba let out a strangled yell and stomped off.

"What's his problem?" Michiko turned and headed with Sora to their rooms.

I decided to go back to sleep. This would be a long day.

Sora

We had heard all the noise the others were making and woke up. I went back in my room to get my things to get ready for the day. I had put my bathroom things in a locker in the bathroom but I needed clothing. I wasn't going to pull a Kiba. I pulled out a black stretchy shirt, red tank top, black long shorts, my sandals, and black fingerless gloves. I headed out to the bathroom with clothing. Michiko met me in the hallway. She was carrying her fishnet top, blue tank top, black skirt, stretchy shorts, fish net legging, leg bandages and kunai holder. We went in the bathroom, took showers and got dressed.

"Hey Sora, could you help with my hair?" She had the longest hair I had ever seen. It was almost down to her ankles. She didn't have it that long just for decoration though. She usually kept it up in various braids tied together. I helped her braid it and pinned the upper half of the braids up into a bun. The lower halves of the braids were left to hang down to her hips. I could never put up with all that hair so I always kept my hair short, hanging at mid neck.

"Let's go. I want my coffee." We walked to the kitchen where Kakashi was finishing breakfast. I grabbed the nearest glass, shoved Shikamaru out of my way and poured myself some nice hot coffee. Mmmm, caffeine. The others came streaming into the room. We all grabbed some food and sat around the tables. Ryuu joined Michiko and me at our end of the table. All around us the guys were in an eating frenzy. They ate like it was going out of style.

"Ok guys, listen up. Today you will have to divide up the chores. You will also be going through some preliminary testing so we can get a gauge on your current skills and abilities. That will take place at around two. Until then you may do what you want. Well, see you then." Kakashi left the room and presumably the building.

"Good. I need to go into town any way." Everything was falling into place.

"Really? Why?" Why did Naruto have to be so nosy?

"I need to pick up something." Which was true actually.

"What?"

"Dammit Naruto, just keep your nose out of her business." Sakura proceeded to smack him on the back of the head. It was hilarious.

We finished up breakfast and I went back to my room.

"You picking up your…"

"Shut up Michiko. You want everyone to know?"

"Sorry."

"Its ok, just be more careful. It's not like I want people to add two and two."

Naruto

I heard their conversation and decided to follow Sora and see what she was picking up. I didn't have much else to do. She went in her room for a bit and then locked up and headed out the door. She talked to some one on the street who pointed her in the direction she wanted to go. She thanked them and headed in the pointed direction. She stopped in the middle of the block and looked around. She went to talk to someone else presumably for more directions. They started talking pretty animatedly so I decided to get a closer look.

"What are you doing?" Gaara appeared from seemingly nowhere nearly giving me a heart attack in the process.

"Shhh. Keep your voice down. I'm trying to find out what she's picking up."

"Hmm. Oddly I'd like to know too."

"Well if you're going to follow keep your voice down."

She stopped talking to the person and headed further down the street until she stopped in front of a drug store. She went in.

"Let's go see what she's doing."

We followed her in and saw her talking to the man behind the counter.

"….But I need them."

"I'm sorry but you're too young to be getting tranquilizers."

"Why? I'm a ninja for God's sake. I'm old enough to go on dangerous life-threatening missions, but I'm too young to get some stupid tranquilizers?"

"Sorry, but that's how it is. Have your sensei get them for you if you need them so bad."

Gaara pulled me out of there.

"Why does she need tranquilizers?" He looked puzzled for a moment before she came out of the store. She went back to the house. She looked really pissed off.

She asked someone where Kakashi-sensei was. They pointed out back. We went around the front.

"Kakashi-sensei?" He climbed down from the tree he was in.

"Yeah? "

"Well due to my 'special conditions', as you call it, I need tranquilizers. But the guy at the store wouldn't let me get them. Too young."

"Why do you need them, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Well, during thunderstorms, the thing goes crazy. If I don't knock myself out, it causes some serious damage. These things tend to do that."

"Yeah I saw what could result recently in the land of waves. I'll get you the tranquilizers. I'll get them to you before the tests alright?"

"That'll be great. Thanks Kakashi-sensei."

"What was that about? What 'special condition' could she possibly have?" Gaara was almost as confused as I was.

"I saw everything in the land of waves that he did. The only things that caused a lot of damage were Zabuza and the….." Suddenly it dawned on me. The Kyubbi. "She has a biju sealed in her."


	3. Past Ghosts

A/n If anyone is actually reading this, hi. Please attempt to review. Please? With cherries on top? And if no one reads this I'm talking to my self

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine. If it was do you think I'd be posting this here?

Chapter 3

Gaara

She had a biju in her. It made sense. We had actually heard of a biju in Kumo called the Raiju. It would go crazy during thunderstorms. It was probably the biju in Sora. I decided that I would ask her about it later. This was an amazing discovery. She might understand me and…

I pushed the thought from my head. Even if she did have a biju, she could never understand him. Even with her family gone she had a normal life. She would never begin to know what my life was like.

Enough with that. I walked to the back door and went inside. I had things to do. When I walked into the living room, I walked straight into a mess of yelling, arguing ninjas.

"Why do I get stuck with that?" "How is that fair?" "You're just partial to her."

"Everyone SHUT UP!" Sora stood on the stairs. Everyone turned to look at her. "Alright. My team and I will divide things up. You can't complain that we're partial. We haven't been here long enough. All right anyone have some paper?"

Someone went and got some paper and pens. Sora and her team took over.

"First of all we need to know who can cook." A number of hands went up. I raised mine too. Living with Temari for many years teaches you many things. Cooking being one, because otherwise you might be poisoned.

"Alright. Choji, Gaara, Shikamaru, Sakura, Michiko and myself. Those people will do the cooking. We need at least three people to do the shopping for food and the like. Ok, Ino, Tenten and Hinata. Laundry? Ryuu, Kankuro and Sasuke. I fear for my clothes. Anyway, the rest of you will be on cleaning. Divide the duties amongst yourselves. People on the cooking list meet me on the kitchen. The rest of you are dismissed. Sorry. Got into the leading thing too much."

She led us into the kitchen where we discussed cooking stuff and put together a list of stuff we needed. She gave it to someone who took it to one of the shopping people. The rest of them left. Sora and I were alone.

"So Sora…."

Kakashi walked in. Damn him.

"Sora here are those… Things you needed." He handed her a bottle and walked out.

"What are those?" I asked even if I already knew. Maybe she would tell me.

"Oh nothing. I gotta go." She left so fast I couldn't have gotten a word in if I tried. Of course she wouldn't tell me. She barely knew me.

It was almost noon. I left to go get some lunch.

Kakashi

What a thing this was turning out to be. Not to mention the fact that there were three jinchuriki living in the same house. What could possibly go wrong? Well except for the possibility of, oh I don't know, _the biju going crazy and killing everybody._ Oh well, what could I do about it? Once the Hokage got an idea in his head there was no talking him out of it. It was two, time to get the testing area ready. He went out into the backyard. Kurenai, the Hokage and several other jonin where already there and setting up.

"Kakashi, you're late." The Hokage was stating the obvious. I was always late.

"Sorry, I needed to get something."

"It doesn't matter. Just go get the kids."

I walked into the house and got them into the backyard.

"They're all yours Hokage."

"Good. Alright, this will consist of various little things designed to test your skills as a shinobi. The various jonin will tell you what to do in the various tests."

He really wanted to see the cloud team in action. It could prove to be very interesting. He watched others go through until it was their turn. They did the ordinary tests easily, clones, transformations, and substitutions. The tests on chakra control were easy for them. One of them, Michiko I think, even laughed and said 'this is too easy'. Then they got to the ninjutsu part. Ryuu performed mizu bunshin no jutsu, Michiko performed kaze no yaiba, and Sora did raikyu. They did the other tests easily as well. They went off to the side with others that finished. They seemed unremarkable, but at least in Sora's case, it was because she didn't want to draw attention to herself. The other two might be doing the same. The rest of the shinobi finished the tests as well.

"Alright everyone you're free to go." They practically raced out of there.

"So what did you think of their performance?" The Hokage probably already formed his own opinion and just wanted to see if I would confirm it.

"They were all holding back. We have yet to see the full skills of all of those shinobi." The Hokage nodded. I must have affirmed his suspicions. "I have the feeling that they are all capable of much more then they show."

Sora

We all went back inside as fast as was humanly possible. Most people went to various places in and out of the house, but my team, Naruto, Shikamaru, Temari and Gaara remained in the living room. We stood around talking about the tests. Naruto decided to go sit on one of the chairs. As he went to sit down, he tripped on something and hit his face on a nearby table. I could smell his blood before I saw the nose bleed. I had to get out of there before the biju went all blood lusty. I quickly backed out of the room and went into the backyard. All of the jonin were gone already. A few seconds later Gaara followed me out the door.

"What are you doing out here?" In actuality I didn't really care. If I asked first maybe I could get the topic away from me with his answer.

"Fresh air. What are you doing? What's the matter? Little kunoichi scared of a little blood?" I froze. Looking at his face I knew he was kidding, but the words scared me like nothing else. I did the only thing that came to mind. I ran.

"Sora! I was just joking! Sora, come back!" I heard him calling after me, but I didn't care, my mind told me to run so I did. I didn't slow down until I ran out of breath. I stopped running to catch it. I leaned against a nearby wall. Feeling something wet on my face I touched it. I was so busy running I didn't realize I had been crying. The thought was so funny, I couldn't help but to laugh. I was falling into hysterics now. Great. I stood up and looked around. Shit. I had no idea where I was. Well it didn't matter anyway. I didn't want to see anyone right now. I climbed up to the nearest roof and just laid there. They would come to find me eventually. Until then it was nice to just get away.

Michiko

I saw her leave the room. I knew why too. Naruto's blood could drive her into crazy bloodlust mode. Really no one wanted her in that mode. Even if only we knew about it. If they did know, they would agree. We had cleaned up his nose bleed and so I went out back to give her the all clear. But I didn't find her waiting for me. I found Gaara sitting on the ground.

"Where is she?" He better not have done anything to her. I would kill him. She was the sister I never had and closer to me then any sister I could ever have.

"I don't know. She ran off. I think it was something I said." He looked up at me. "I was just joking around."

"What did you say?" If I knew that then I could know what she might have done.

"I said something about her being scared of blood. It was a joke. A really stupid one admittedly, but I don't really joke much…"

"What did you say? I need exact wording here."

"I said, and I quote, 'What's the matter? Little kunoichi scared of a little blood?"

"Shit. She could be anywhere."

"Why? Why would that get her so…. Scared."

"Well you said the exact thing that was said to her after her sister was killed."


	4. Confrontations and Explanations

Alright here's chapter 4! I might actually start naming them eventually, but I'm didn't want to think for this one.

Shout outs-

LittleAngel22493- my first reviewer! Here's a cookie!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto yada yada yada.

Gaara

Of all the damned luck. Of course I say that one line out of millions.

"I have to find her. I will find her."

I took off. I knew which direction she went. With any luck I would find her. Of course, luck wasn't with me so far. I went around asking people if they saw her. I was pointed in her direction until I came to the person who knew where she was. He pointed up on the roof across the street. There she was. I climbed up and sat beside her. She turned and looked at me.

"Look, I'm sorry. I was trying to be funny and I didn't realize what I was saying."

She laughed. "You think that makes up for it? You think that can take back the memories that I managed to repress? Well it can't. So just go away."

"How am I supposed to know what I'm doing wrong if you won't tell me anything about your past?"

"You would never understand what I've been through. You could never."

"You might be surprised. You'll never know unless you try."

"Forget it. I couldn't tell you any way. There are things I don't want people to know about. Just tell me how to get home." I silently pointed in the direction she needed to go. She ran off without a word.

Temari

Sora came in and headed straight to her room. Gaara came in a few minutes after her. I guess that she was still mad at him. I walked over and leaned against the wall next to him.

"So, you found her. How'd it go?"

"Fine." It was obviously not. But I knew better then to pry into it. They would have to face each other sooner or later. Speaking of confrontations, one was about to happen. Michiko had no idea that Neji was headed toward her looking pissed off. He tore the book she was reading out of her hands and threw it across the room nearly hitting someone in the process. She looked up at him calmly, no trace of anger or fear or anything. Everyone in the room looked at the two of them, nobody made a noise. We were all preparing to run.

"When I told you not to stick around I wasn't kidding. You should have left when you had the chance."

"Oh really? What are you going to do?"

"I'll make you leave. You have no right to be here. The bastard from your village took care of that."

"Ok. I'm just going to ignore that and advise you that if you don't shut up, I'll pull your liver out through your nose. And don't think I can't." I had no doubt she could follow through with her words. Something about the look in her eyes.

"I doubt it. The lot of you are liars, cheaters and honorless bastards. Just like he was."

"You shut up. You don't know anything. He was an honorable man."

"Then why did he try to kidnap Hinata? Seems like the kind of thing someone with no honor would do. He was a power grubbing asshole."

"He was not! He never would have done it if the Raikage wasn't threatening us!" Everyone looked at each other in confusion. What was she talking about?

"Us?"

"Well I might as well tell you all now. Yes us. Ryuu, me, our younger brother and our mother. His family. He was my father." This could put Neji over the edge. "The Raikage threatened to kill us or worse if he didn't go through with it. So he went to save us and got himself killed. No one in my village supported the actions of the Raikage, but he had more power then we could rebel against. Had he any choice in the matter he wouldn't have done it……" Her voice trailed off. It was a horribly sad story, one that I'm sure nobody in Konoha had heard. Neji was clearly shocked. I'm sure he never expected this.

"I… Well….. Fine." He stomped off. I looked around. Most of the leaf ninjas had left earlier, expecting a fight that they didn't want to be in the crossfire of. Only Ino and Tenten didn't leave along with me and Gaara. She sat down. I went over to her and put my arm over her shoulders.

"Don't worry about him, he's a jerk. Your father did what he thought was right, protecting his family. We should all be so lucky." She smiled at me. Gaara sat next to me.

"Thanks, I'm going to go check on Sora." She got up and left.

"That cloud team is just full of surprises." I heard Ino start talking behind us. "Like Sora. Have you noticed she tries to shower when no one else is there? But one time I walked in as she was getting dressed, and she had all these scars on her back. One of them went from one shoulder to the other, but I didn't see it end. She put her shirt on and left." Gaara was listening intently. I don't know what he could possibly be thinking. The girls left.

"What do you think of that?" I had to ask if I wanted to know.

"It might explain some things. So when's dinner?" Changing the subject huh? Interesting.

"Dinner's in an hour."

"Oh, ok."

He left. It was only the second day and the insanity had already begun.

Sora

I lay on the bed staring at the ceiling. I had a lot to think about. Gaara was kind of right. I couldn't blame him for things he knew nothing about. But he would never understand me or my past. I heard a knock on the door. I got up and opened it to reveal Michiko. She looked upset.

"What happened?" If someone hurt her I would kill them.

"Oh nothing. Neji just confronted me and was saying these horrible things about my father and I just blurted out the whole thing."

"Do you want me to hurt him? Cause I will. And not just for my own entertainment." She laughed. It was a good sign. "Maybe those leaf ninjas needed to hear the other side of things. They only got one side of the issue."

"I don't know. We'll see. Anyway, dinner is starting. Let's go." I would have gone if I didn't have to face Gaara. No telling how mad he might be about this whole damn thing.

"You go on without me. I'm not hungry." She gave me a look of disbelief. "Fine. But you can't avoid him forever." She walked out. It was a good thing, because I wouldn't know how to respond to that. I grabbed a book and flipped to the page I left off at. I read a few chapters before I started reading the same paragraph over and over again. I marked my page, turned out the light and went to sleep. Hopefully the nightmares wouldn't come tonight.

Gaara

She didn't show up at dinner. I didn't blame her. I went to ask Michiko about her, but she just said Sora wasn't hungry. Bull.

I went to my room after dinner to once again wait for everyone to sleep. Once I judged that they were, I left the room and went downstairs. Maybe I could find a good book to read or something. As I searched the living room, I heard a door fly open down the hall. Sora shot out and ran into the bathroom. Without thinking, I ran in after her. She was throwing up in one of the stalls. The toilet flushed and she came out. She stumbled and I caught her. I sat her down on one of the benches and sat next to her.

"You shouldn't be in here. It's the girl's room."

"Never mind that. What's wrong?"

"Well not eating didn't help and nightmares are the topping on the cake."

"What nightmares could be that bad?"

"Do you normally dream of charred corpses? That's what."

"Well let's get you back to your room and you can tell me all about it."

I helped her up and across the hall to her room. The door was already open so she didn't need to unlock it. I helped her lie down.

"Now do you want to explain this?"

"It's a long story. You sure you want to hear this?"

"We have a long time and I'm definitely sure."

"Make your self comfortable. Well my life started out normal enough. I was the middle child of the family. My brother was the oldest and I had a younger sister. Every thing was great until about age 8. My mother's family had been pressuring her to arrange a marriage for me. It was an old tradition in my village. They would have arranged it with Ryuu if his family hadn't abandoned the practice years earlier. Our families were friends. Ryuu, Michiko and I had been friends since we were born. Ryuu's mother had pulled some strings to put us on the same team. They were an influential family. Well since that avenue was closed; it was arranged with the son of an equally influential family. I didn't like them from the start, but my parents insisted that it was all in my head. The real trouble started when I was 10. My family and I were out somewhere when we were attacked by a group of shinobi. We were outnumbered. My mother, father and brother were killed, but for some reason they didn't do anything to me and my sister. When we got back to the house, we found that it had been burnt to the ground. That's why I have no pictures or anything else of theirs. The only thing I have of them is my mother's necklace." She pulled a silver chain out from under her shirt. It had a dragon pendant on it. "Day's later we found out that they had written in their wills to have us live with the family of my fiancé- to- be. We had always thought that they put to have us live with Michiko's family. So we went to live with them. We soon found out that his father was abusive and so was he. The mother wasn't beaten down enough to not take out her anger on us though. All three of them had a tendency to throw kunai at people that angered them. Although they didn't have very good aim."

"Is that where the scars on your back came from? I heard Ino talking. What about the one across your shoulders?"

"That is where those scars came from. The one across my shoulders was something else. One day he got really mad at me. I… forgot what happened. He cut me with a kunai across my shoulders and down the entire length of one arm. My sister was able to stitch it up though. And then they… went away and I came here. Well, there you have it. Now if you'll…."

"Actually, I know there's more. Like the biju."

"How'd you know about that?"

"I figured it out. Now tell me."

"Well if you already know. Ok, somewhere in that time, my aunt and uncle decided to blame us that our parents and the heir to the family were killed. They didn't really do anything. Just disowned us. Then the bastards got it into their heads to seal the Raiju in me to get a weapon. So they used my sister as a sacrifice and sealed the Raiju in me. Well they had to do it during a thunderstorm to find it. But the downside was that with the storm and the shock of being put in a person, it took over. It went crazy and killed them and their minions. I woke up lying among a bunch of charred bodies. Ryuu and Michiko came to check how we were after the storm and found me. They took me back to their home. Well my aunt and uncle heard about what happened and decided that I must have killed my parents. Don't ask me how they got that. They attacked me. I had to kill them. Neither me of the Raiju wanted to die and would have taken over and killed more then just them. So somehow the word got out that the Raiju was put in me and the villagers would no longer accept me. They harassed and attacked me nonstop. I put up with it for a year before we heard of the experiment here and so we left."

"And the nightmares?"

"I dream about that day or about the biju inside going crazy and killing my teammates. It goes nuts during storms and I have to knock myself out so that it doesn't kill anyone. It also goes all blood lusty if I even smell blood."

It was a lot to take in. She wasn't what I thought. She really could understand me. But now wasn't the right time.

"You've been through a lot. But now you have friends. We won't let anything like that happen to you again."

"So you count yourself as one of my friends?"

"Yeah. I suppose I do."

She launched herself at me and hugged me.

"What was that for?"

"You heard about my past and what I am and you still consider yourself my friend."

"Well, you aren't your past or your biju. But you need to get some sleep. You aren't exactly a morning person."

"What about you?"

"I don't sleep"

"What if I have more nightmares?"

"I'll be here."

"You promise you'll be here."

"Yeah, I do."


	5. Before the Storm

A/N- Sorry it took so long! It wouldn't let me upload it. Troublesome internet! And in a recent discovery that lightning ninja doesn't look like he should. So pretend that he does. (Edit: see chapter 7. my brain decided to work!)

Disclaimer- Still not mine. Damn it.

Sora

I ran through the woods. I had no idea where I was or where I was going. All I knew was I had to get away. He was after me. I glanced behind me. He was gaining on me. But he couldn't be alive, he was a charred body. I dodged around some trees and changed direction, hoping to throw him. It didn't work. The charred bits were falling off. He was alive again. I tripped and fell. I turned on my back and saw him standing over me. Then there were two of him. I kicked the one that chased me in the stomach and he went flying into a tree. He fell into pieces. "Surprised?" His laugh echoed evilly in the trees.

I sat up. I was in my room. Gaara was sitting in my chair reading some book. He closed it and looked up at me.

"More nightmares?"

"They won't go away just because you sit there. This one was different. He chased me and then there were two of him and then one fell to pieces and he was alive. But he can't be alive, he just can't. I saw his body myself. My teammates did too. He was nothing but ashes" I tried not to cry, but failed. Gaara walked over, sat beside me and awkwardly put his arm around me. I leaned against him and cried on his shoulder.

"It's alright. It was just a dream. If he was really alive he would have found you by now." I looked at him.

"You haven't done this much before, have you?" He shook his head. "Well thanks for trying. You brought up some lovely things you know." He grimaced.

"I know, I know. You hide what you've been through really well. You would think that you were just a normal person. I kind of admire that. Just don't tell anyone that I said that."

"What, don't want to ruin the tough guy rep?"

"Exactly."

I just laughed at that. It was just so cute. Whoa. Where did that come from? I mean as far as looks went, he was hot, but he was psycho. Although the last day was kind of contradicting that. And I was alone, in my room with the hot psycho.

"What's wrong?" The last thought must have put a look on my face. But he was concerned about me. He wasn't as bad as Kiba made me think.

"Nothing. Everything is wonderful." I hugged him around his waist. "Just wonderful." I had to admit, I felt safe, even if it was with the psycho.

I woke up the next morning with him still sitting there. One arm around me, the other holding the book he was reading last night.

"Ah, good, you're awake. My arm is going numb." I sat up quickly.

"What time is it?"

"Six. Why?" Before I could answer, or even swear like I wanted to right now, I heard a knock on the door. It was Michiko. We had decided to wake everyone in the cooking group up now to start breakfast.

"Sora, six o'clock. Time to start breakfast!"

"Shit." Apparently Gaara realized the situation. But before I could think of anything, Michiko picked the lock and barged in.

"If you won't get up willingly……….." Michiko stopped in her path, shock written all over her face.

"Now Michiko, I know what this looks like, but it isn't."

"Yes, well. If it was I don't think he'd be reading. One, you wouldn't like that and two... well there's a two I'm sure, but I'm in shock and my brain isn't working so well. Now explain!"

"Well, I was getting some water when she went to throw up in the bathroom."

"Bad dreams. And so he helped me back to my room and stayed here because I wanted him to. And then I had another nightmare."

"And I wanted to help her get some sleep." Michiko looked like she was in-between hitting us and laughing. Trust me when I say it was very weird expression.

"Well no one else will be up, because we didn't tell them to be so we will just exit the room, wake everyone else up, cook breakfast and pretend that nothing happened."

We followed her out of the room and found out the flaw in her plan; Shikamaru.

"What were you three doing? Anything fun?"

"They were helping me look for something."

"We were having a meeting."

"You pervert." It didn't help that Michiko and I said our excuses at the same time. At least Gaara didn't have another excuse.

"They were helping me find something during the meeting." We all nodded hoping that it would stop him from any other theories.

"Sure, sure. Well let's wake everyone up and start breakfast."

We cooked up breakfast without incident and put it in the dining room for everyone. We grabbed some food and sat down to eat. Everybody started drifting in to get some food. Ino came in and, for some reason, grabbed two plates.

"I'm going to get Sasuke-kun some food," She randomly announced.

"No way! I'm totally getting him food! Just back off Ino pig." Sakura shouted. Right in my ear too.

"Yeah right billboard brow!" Sakura and Ino glared at each other while piling food on a plate. Sasuke came in and their eyes went from each other to him.

"Sasuke-kun! I got you some breakfast!" Ino shouted at him.

"No way! I did." They glared at each other and raced over to Sasuke. At the same time Kiba put his leg in their way. They both tripped and the loaded plates flew out of their hands. And landed directly on Sasuke. Both girls looked at him in shock. He looked ready to kill someone.

"Oh my God! Good job Sakura!"

"How is this my fault? You're the klutz!" Ino and Sakura grabbed some napkins and rushed over to Sasuke. They pulled various bits of food off him while he stood there seething. The fact that the entire room was cracking up only served to fan the flames.

"Don't touch me. Just go away." Sasuke practically growled.

"But we're.." Sakura began to protest.

"Just go away!" He stomped over to the table and sat in the seat between me and Naruto.

"But Sasuke-kun! Is there anything I can do for you? I would do anything for you." Sakura said.

"You know what I want you to do? LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE! God damn it, don't you get it? I hate you! You and the rest of those damn fan girls. I have never liked you and I never will. Just get it through your thick skull billboard brow!" Sasuke yelled. Sakura's eyes teared up and she fled from the room. Naruto smacked Sasuke upside the head.

"Way to go bastard!" He followed after her. Ino looked from the door to Sasuke and back. Then the internal battle stopped and she slapped Sasuke in the face before following after Naruto.

"I have a feeling I deserved that." He sighed. Kakashi came into the dining room presumably to announce something.

"Alright everyone. There is going to be a training session today. Bring any weapons that you can use, because that is what we will be training with. Be there by two, after lunch." He walked out and everyone started talking again. Weapons training eh? Sounded like fun.

We all finished up breakfast and left to various destinations. The cooking group was in the kitchen dealing with this morning's dishes. I stood on the side talking to Sakura and Hinata while the guys put the dishes away.

"Sora, you've talked to the sand team. Are they as bad as Kiba made them sound?" Sakura asked. She and Hinata looked at me waiting. I thought about it. Gaara wasn't, but the other two... Michiko had told me about what happened with Temari so she wasn't. But I didn't know about Kankuro.

"Gaara and Temari aren't bad at all, but I haven't talked to Kankuro that much." The truth seemed to satisfy them.

"Well, I sure hope you're right. Gaara's not that bad to look at either." Sakura said.

"I suppose you're right. He is hot, in a dangerous sort of way." What I failed to realize was that Gaara was standing right behind me.

"Really now?" We spun around, our faces bight red.

"Umm….. Gotta go!" Sakura ran for it, dragging Hinata with her. Shikamaru and Choji walked out of the room laughing hysterically. Damn them all.

"So I'm dangerous looking. I suppose that's a good thing."

"Well some girls like that."

"Do you? Never mind, I better go… do something." He left.

What was that supposed to mean? Did I like the dangerous sort? I didn't have an answer one way or the other so I just dropped it from my mind. I wondered why he wanted to know. I wandered around the house pondering that very question. Why?

There was no way to know unless I could read his mind. I was good, but not that good. I also couldn't forget that night on the roof. He had been hiding something and I wanted to know what and why. The best source would be him, but he probably wouldn't tell me. So I found the next best; his sister.

I found her outside, sitting under a tree, reading a book.

"Hey! Temari, what's up?"

"Nothing really."

"Ah well." How could I get her to talk? "So, you're Gaara's sister, right? So what's his deal?"

"I know what you're doing. Pumping me for information is not going to work. And you won't get any information from Kankuro either. As the children of the Kazekage, we were all trained to…. Oh shit." She smacked herself on the forehead. _She just gave me a vital….. Children of the Kazekage! But that would mean that Gaara, as the youngest, was the kid that the biju was put in._ Well, I didn't need to ask about his past. I knew it already. He had it as bad as I did. He was like me. Somewhat anyway.

"Thanks for your help." As I walked off, Temari started swearing. Something about Gaara killing her. For a second I considered asking if she was serious, but I had a jinchuriki to confront. For anyone else, this might have been scary, but I was different. I had my own biju. If it came to a fight, it would be pretty exciting.

Gaara

She thought I was hot. That was cool. I had no idea why it mattered to me though. I never really cared about anyone's opinion of me before, but this girl comes and says some nice things, and I cared. Speaking of said girl….

"We need to talk." Mostly only girls dreaded those words, but they sent a chill down my spine anyway. And we weren't even together.

"What about?"

"Oh just the fact that you're the SON OF THE KAZEKAGE!" I was going to kill whichever one of my siblings slipped. "And the youngest son too. Which makes you the son he stuffed the biju in." She was as smart as I thought. Shit.

"... No I'm not." She raised an eyebrow cynically. "I didn't think you'd buy that. Well I suppose you'll be wanting an explanation. I didn't want to hide it but I didn't think you'd understand."

She went to say something when Choji burst in.

"Lunch time guys. Let's go."

"We'll talk about this later." She walked past me, her eyes glinting dangerously.

"What was that all about?" Choji was understandably confused.

"Nothing you need to know." I headed to the kitchen with Choji right behind me. We prepared, ate and cleaned up lunch without a word passing between Sora and I. When two approached I hoped we wouldn't be fighting other people. She might just kill me.

Sora

I went back to my room and got my kusarigama. The scythe on the end of the chain glittered dangerously. It was the weapon I fought with most. It was also the most fun. I walked out and locked the door. Michiko walked out with her meteor hammer. She held the chain and the weighted end letting the steel ball at the other end swing beside her. Ryuu met us in the living room. He was carrying his katana. He always had it with him anyway. We walked into the training room. Most of the shinobi were there with their various weapons.

"What is that?" Apparently Naruto had never seen my weapon before.

"It's a kusarigama. It's really quite fun."

"How do you even use that?" Always questions with this kid.

"Maybe Sora would be willing to demonstrate?" Kakashi walked into the room behind us. "Although, while this is a big room, I think we should go outside. If she wants to demonstrate her weapon. I doubt many people have seen a kusarigama in action."

"Of course Kakashi-sensei. I would love to." He rounded up the other shinobi and we went outside.

"Now I don't think straw dummies are good for a proper look at this weapon and I don't really want anyone getting hurt, so we'll use clones. Naruto if you please." Naruto grinned as I looked on.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Suddenly the yard was filled with Naruto clones. _Shadow clones huh? Kind of an advanced technique._

"Perhaps too many. Oh well. If you're ready." I nodded and got ready for the fight. "Well then. Begin."


	6. Kusarigama

A/N Ha ha! I finally got it to work. Anyone else having trouble uploading documents or just me? Anyway! Here's chapter 6. I'm not sure but Kankuro might be a little ooc. Thanks to the people who have reviewed this so far; LittleAngel22493, Evilfangirl, and ElissaWolf, and to the people who faved it; I'm A PureEvil, and Gaara1Love. Cookies all around!!

Disclaimer- Naruto is still very much not mine.

Gaara

The clones prepared to attack her. I had to admit, it scared me a bit to see her facing so many. But she just smiled. She took the chain and started swinging it in a large circle above her head. Three of the clones darted out at her. She hit the first two with the weighted end of the chain before stabbing the third with her scythe. The rest of the clones eyed her with wary eyes. Several of the clones got out kunai and attacked. She blocked most of them with the scythe and darted out of reach. The hand with the chain shot forward, sending the chain in a wide arc in front of her. The clones were demolished. Suddenly they all attacked at once. She ducked a punch to the face and jumped over a leg sweep stabbing and hitting as many as she could. One got under her guard and punched her in the mouth. She was taken by surprise and fell backwards, the chain flying with her. She just about seethed with anger. Wiping the blood off of her lip, she stood. The chain started spinning in its arc once more. The clones resumed the onslaught. An almost demonic look came over her as she fended off fists and kunai. She stabbed and slashed insanely. One of the clones flew forward, intending to kick her side. She swung the chain beside her, catching his leg. Changing the momentum of her swing, the clone was sent flying into the nearest tree with a sickening thud. The last of the clones regrouped and came at her. One aimed a hit at the same part of her face as before, but this time she ducked under his fist. She stabbed him in the back before turning to the others. Two came at her from different sides as one jumped at her back from a nearby tree. The first two were dispatched easily enough, but the third hit her in the shoulder as he came down. The scythe flew from her hand and triumph lit the clone's eyes. Distracted by his apparent victory, he didn't notice the kunai headed towards his throat until it was too late. She grabbed her weapon as the last four looked on. Three came at her in a last stitch effort. They were taken out by that scythe of hers. The fourth launched himself at her, aiming a foot toward her torso. She darted out of range and threw the scythe at him. As he turned to dodge it, he was hit. She yanked on the chain sending the scythe whirling back to her. She caught it with one hand and a somewhat smug smile crossed her face.

"Well, a great demonstration of the kusarigama," Kakashi began.

"Yes a great _demon_stration." The entire group looked at Naruto like he was insane.

Suddenly lighting flashed overhead, followed by a blast of thunder and the pouring rain. We ran inside. Sora quietly exited the room holding her head. That meant nothing good. I followed her to her room. She grabbed the tranquilizer bottle off of her desk and popped one in her mouth. Lightning crackled up her arms and legs. I guessed that was the Raiju beginning to go crazy. She abruptly collapsed on the floor. Those were some powerful tranquilizers. I turned to leave, but something made me stop. I couldn't just let her lay on the floor, damn conscience. I lifted her onto her bed. She wore a peaceful expression on her face, marred by the blood that trickled from her lip. My hand reached forward of its own accord and wiped the blood from her face. I left the room and shut the door. I debated not even going back with the group, but decided I had nothing better to do. Ryuu and Michiko were coming toward Sora's room.

"She's fine. She's sleeping."

"How much do you know?" Michiko asked suspiciously.

"All of it. At least I think so. That girl is full of surprises. There are probably things that I still don't know."

"Yeah well. What you don't know can't hurt you. Theoretically. I suppose you just left her weapon on the floor. She might kill you for that. She's very sensitive about it. Her father gave it to her and trained her with it. She might sleep with it if it wasn't so sharp. I guess I'll go put it away." Michiko went to her room. Ryuu examined me blatantly.

"Why would she tell you?" Paranoid little idiot. Actually he wasn't that little.

"I asked for an explanation and she gave me one." Outside the wind howled and the rain beat on the windows.

"Fine. If she trusts you enough to tell you, I suppose I can too. But you better watch yourself. If you tell anyone…. Well let's just say my sister is very creative." The meaning was hard to miss. For the second time today I got a shiver down my spine. This was a new record.

"Read you loud and clear. I wouldn't tell anyone anyway." Michiko returned to the hall way.

"If you tell."

"Yeah, yeah. I got the threat from him."

"Does any one else know?" The girl was smarter then I figured.

"Naruto does to an extent. He figured somehow figured out that she was a jinchuriki and told me."

"I wonder how he did it. He isn't really that smart. Weird. Well they're probably looking for us by now. Let's go."

Sora

I slowly woke up in my dark room. The storm had moved on. I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed. How did I get up here? I shook my head to clear the last bit of sleepiness left over from the tranquilizers. The last thing I remembered was collapsing on the floor. Someone must have put me here. I looked at the clock, it was 4:35. They would be starting to eat dinner. As if on cue, Michiko poked her head through the door.

"Ah, you're awake! I thought you might be. Come on, dinners already started."

"What'd you say to get me out of everything?"

"We just said that you got sick, which is true enough."

"Ahh. Well thanks for putting me on the bed."

"Actually, that was Gaara."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Strange huh?"

"Yeah."

I followed her down the hall to the dining room to be greeted by the delicious smell of food. After getting our food, we sat down at the end of the table with Ryuu sitting at it.

"I guess you didn't need me to cook good food. I'm so proud."

"No, we didn't need you. We can do things well enough on our own." I turned and looked towards the voice. Shikamaru was sitting a few seats down from me. I just glared at him and ate my dinner.

"I hope you are feeling better Sora." Rock Lee sat across from me.

"Huh?"

"Ryuu and Michiko informed us about your sudden illness. I guess you are feeling better or you would not be eating."

"Yeah, well, that fight with the clones must have taken more out of me then I thought."

"Funny that you get sick when the storm came and got better after it ended. Hmmm what a coincidence." What the hell was Naruto talking about? It sounded like…. No he's not smart enough.

"Yeah. How bout that." I finished up eating and left the table. I'd come back to do the dishes later. I looked around the dining room a few people weren't here. Neji, Temari and Gaara weren't here. Don't know about Temari, but Neji and Gaara were chicken. They didn't want to get their asses kicked for messing with Michiko and myself. I'd leave Neji alone for the moment, but biju boy's ass was fried. I figured I'd start looking outside, it seemed the most likely. Sure enough, there he was. I let the door slam shut behind me. He looked down at me from the branch he was perched on. I walked over to the tree. He made no movement to run or anything.

"It won't really do you any good to attack me. The sand will protect me. With or without my will. Although if you've heard the stories you already know that." He was right. I heard about how the biju gave him the ability to control sand and how it protects him.

"I'm not going to attack you. Yet." He rolled his pupil less eyes. I sat down at the base of the tree. "I just want to know why you hid your past from me even after I revealed mine. I told you, why couldn't you tell me?"

"I was going to tell you. I was just… scared. You had heard about it. Who knows what you could have heard about me, about what I've done. How many people are dead because of me. You might decide that I'm too much of a problem child to hang around."

"Whatever. Maybe I have heard all that. But before I knew that you were the 'problem child' I heard about, you proved to be otherwise. After all, I woke up this morning with my head firmly attached. I've done things I regret, so how could I judge you on your past." His cynical laughter rang harshly in my ears.

"The thing is I don't regret what I've done. The people that I've killed deserved to die. I only regret that I haven't killed that bastard father of mine. He did kill my mother. But you already knew that. Didn't you?"

"Yeah I did, but I don't care if you regret anything, I don't even care about your past. I still want to be your friend."

He jumped off of the branch and landed next to me. "Just a friend?" Before I could say anything, he kissed me. And just as quickly he pulled away. "I shouldn't have done that." He went to the door and went inside. I decided to think later act now. I ran inside to find him. He was in the living room.

"Gaara, what was that all about?"

"Nothing. Just forget about it." He started walking up the stairs. I followed.

"Oh so a psycho kisses me and I'm supposed to just forget about it?"

"_Now_ I'm a psycho? You have some nerve. Just forget it." We reached the landing and he started walking to his room.

"I have some nerve! You're the one who just _kissed me_!" Suddenly he stopped, staring at the couch.

"Now what are you doing?" He pointed at the couch. Shikamaru and Temari. They were staring at us just as shocked as we were.

"You kissed her?"

"You were kissing my sister." Temari and I just looked at each other.

"So what's this?" I asked her.

"Nothing. What about your thing."

"It was nothing," Gaara said quickly. I glared at him. He was such an ass.

"Right. We speak of this to no one. Agreed?" Temari looked between the two of us waiting for an answer.

"Agreed," He said before retreating to his room. Like I said such an ass.

"Agreed. Dinner should be letting out soon. Just to let you know."

"Yeah, I can hear them." Shikamaru said.

I walked away and went down stairs. They were milling around the living room aimlessly. I wasn't much better so I milled myself toward my room. Michiko caught up with me.

"What was with the yelling upstairs? I finished dinner before everyone else and I thought I heard someone yelling about kissing someone."

"We'll talk about it later."

"No. We'll talk now." She dragged me into her room and shut the door. "What's up with you? You used to tell me everything after it happened, not when you felt like it. And you've been very worked up all the time. Maybe you shouldn't hang around this Gaara kid if he's going to keep pushing your buttons and pissing you off. You know the dangers of that. He goes one button too far and he's fried."

"It's not that Michiko. Well, I found out that he's the youngest son of the Kazekage and you know the stories as well as I do."

"Jinchuriki of homicidalness?"

"Bingo. But when I've been around him, he's nothing like what I thought that kid would be like. And when I confronted him about it and told him I didn't care about it, he …. Well he… kissed me. It's not that he pisses me off. Most of the time anyway. Yes he pushes some buttons, but I'm not sure that they're the wrong ones."

"Are you saying what I think you're saying? I'm pretty sure that you mean that you like him. In a more then friendly way." I didn't think that I did. But I couldn't deny that there was a part of me that was insanely happy last night. But did that mean something? "Well is that what you mean?"

"Honestly Michiko, I don't know. I mean, I barely know him."

"Well he's cute at least." She said that once, a long time ago about that bastard in Kumo. Judging by her tone, she implied that the same was true.

"I know. If looks meant everything, we would still be back home. Though he is isn't he?" That got a laugh out of her at least. "Look, I'm sorry I've been acting weird and I promise to start telling you every little detail about what I do without you."

"I don't think I need _every_ detail, just the big ones."

"So I'm forgiven?"

"I suppose. I wonder what Ryuu's up to."

"Probably still eating. Let's go see."

Kankuro

That stupid weapons training was a waste of time. Karasu was the only weapon I needed. This whole thing was a waste. I don't even know why we're here. Gaara and Temari insisted on it. Something about finding out the enemies' weakness or some shit. And so here I was, in the living room, talking to the leaf genin. They were mostly interesting with a few idiots interspersed. Like Hyuga Neji. That idiot was going on and on about how the cloud ninja are lying, cheating scum. The rest of them were defending them. Whatever. Hmmm, speaking of cloud ninja, the girls were walking out of the dining room.

"Where do you suppose he went to?"

"How am I supposed to know? You're his twin; don't you have some kind of psychic link to him?"

"That was one time and I doubt he falls out of trees anymore." I was sitting close enough to them to hear everything and it was quite entertaining.

"Well never mind that. I owe Neji something."

"What?"

"He was threatening you. That's never ok when I'm around." Things were about to get interesting. Never mind that I had no idea what they were talking about. Michiko just rolled her eyes and plopped into a seat near mine while Sora walked over to Neji. This could be fun. She stood in front of him, glaring at him.

"What do _you_ want?"

"You upset my teammate and I'm here to return the favor. Painfully."

"What is she talking about?" I whispered to Michiko. She barely glanced in my direction.

"Oh just the confrontation I had with Neji where everyone learned about my family." _Oh, right. Still don't know._

"I sincerely doubt that you could even hurt me." I would be willing to bet that he's wrong.

"Oh, really? We'll see about that." She pulled her fist back and went to punch him in the face. Suddenly Kakashi appeared out of no where and grabbed her fist as it sailed toward Neji's head.

"That's enough! I don't know what the deal between you two is, but I won't let you duke it out here." Kakashi dropped Sora's fist and stepped away.

"I owed him. He threatened my teammate. And how did you know anyway?"

"Surveillance cameras." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Shikamaru's eyes widen as he turned tomato red. Wonder what _he's_ been doing.

"Ah, well. Interesting and all, but I'm still going to pay him back for Michiko."

"No you're not. You're both going to drop whatever issues you have with each other. Remember, I'll be watching." Kakashi poofed off. Sora glared at the spot where he stood and stalked off in a huff. Neji just wandered off somewhere. I turned to ask Michiko something and found her walking toward the training room. I followed her there and out the back door.

"What do you want?'

"Well I wanted to ask you something. If it's you he threatened, why weren't you kicking his can?"

"And you are?" I looked at her in confusion before realizing I wasn't wearing my hat or face paint. She probably didn't recognize me.

"Kankuro? Sand team? The one with the face paint?"

"Oh, Kankuro. I didn't recognize you! You look better without the paint."

"Never mind that. Why weren't you kicking his can?"

"What and deprive her of her fun? Not likely."

"Is she sadistic like that?"

"I wouldn't say that. Only that she… Ok ya she is."

"Well we could form a club. The teammates of crazy sadists." She laughed.

"Is he really a sadist?"

"Yep. As twisted as they come. It's probably not in Sora's best interests to hang around him."

"I'm not worried. She can handle herself."

"You don't know Gaara. If he wants to hurt someone, they don't stand a chance. He scares _me_ sometimes."

"You have a lovely family don't you? Course biju are scary things."

"What? You know?"

"Well, Temari spilled the beans to Sora who told me."

"Well, it's been nice knowing Temari. So you know what he is and you're still not worried about her?"

"Yeah, well she's got more up her sleeve then you could possibly know."

"Well I hope she doesn't have to pull any of it out."

"So do I. She could hurt a lot of people." A concept I was familiar with. "Well, nice talking to you. And you really should lay off the face paint more often. It's pretty stupid looking." She walked back inside. What a bitch.


	7. Revelations

A/N Chapter 7! So my brain decided to turn on, and I felt like kicking myself. Hair color could switch between parents. So therefore, Michiko looks like her mom with dark hair and Ryuu looks like his dad with blond hair. All is right with the world! Ok now that that's settled! This chapter the plot ran away and started a life of its own. I no longer have much control, I just do the typing! I will warn you, INCOMING: fluff, a small touch of angst and a spit take. Happy reading!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, someone would get a pie in the face at the end of every episode! Just for kicks!

Sora

I woke up feeling great. Amazing what a good nights sleep could do for a girl. 5:53. Michiko would be here to wake me up to start with breakfast soon. I got dressed quickly. She knocked on the door just as I was tying my hitae-ate to my forehead. She knocked again, harder.

"I'm coming! Jeez, you trying to knock down the door?"

"Maybe I am." I went into the hall and locked the door. "Let's go get started on breakfast. Oh and we need to put together another shopping list. It seems that we went through more then we thought we would."

"Oh and did they get laundry supplies? Laundry day is tomorrow."

"Yeah we did. I wonder how it'll go."

"Badly I imagine. They probably won't be able to figure out how to sort it all."

"Laundry sorting jutsu? That should be interesting. Now as interesting as that is, we need to make breakfast. Or are you stalling?" Sometimes I swear that the girl is psychic. Creepy sometimes. But I wouldn't tell her that.

"No, not a bit. Let's go." She raised an eyebrow cynically, but didn't say anything. We walked to the kitchen where the rest of the group was gathering.

"So, what's on the menu today? Although we have limited options." Shikamaru said, already having the situation assessed. I looked in the refrigerator and the food cabinets to see what we could do. It didn't look good. "We could just cook what we have left and let them deal with it."

"Sounds great. So we'll have rice, noodles and vegetables for breakfast. Ah hell, why not." I hoped no one would care.

"Fine. We stir fry the noodles with the veggies. Some one start chopping them." Sakura said. I grabbed the green peppers, mushrooms and carrots and put them on the counter. I looked for the knives in the drawers near me before remembering where they were. And of course, who should be in the way. Gaara. I swear it was like a bad piece of fiction, he was always around. I walked up to him.

"I need to get a knife. Could you move?" Not saying a word he stepped aside. I grabbed the knife I wanted and went back to my vegetables. He could be such an idiot sometimes. Why was I getting so mad about this? He said to forget about it. Why couldn't I? It made me so mad to not know why.

"Umm Sora? Did that pepper do something to upset you?" Shikamaru asked.

"No. Why?" He gestured to the cutting board. I looked down at the destroyed vegetable. "Huh. I guess I wasn't paying attention."

"Yes well you should pay attention when you're using a large, sharp object close to your hands."

"Right. I'll keep that in mind." The rest of the process went smoothly. We put the food in the dining room where the hungry shinobi attacked it. Apparently they didn't care what it was. I grabbed myself a plate and sat down with Michiko and Ryuu.

"So Ryuu, have you figured out how to do the laundry?" I couldn't resist asking.

"I don't know. We haven't talked about it yet." Typical male. At least some things in this place are predictable. Kakashi walked into the dining room. Everyone turned to look at him. The quicker we listened to him, the quicker we could continue with our conversations. I poured myself some water from the pitcher on the table.

"Alright everyone, today we will be doing some psychological evaluations." I spit out my water in shock. Psychological evaluations! Shit. "For some reason the Hokage wants to know these things. You can return to what you were doing." He walked away while pulling out an orange book.

"Oh boy. I hope they don't want too much information. I don't want all of Konoha knowing my deep dark secrets." And shrinks. I hate shrinks.

"Really? Deep dark secrets. Like what? Maybe you are a crazed murderer. Or maybe you have a…" Sakura shoved Naruto's face into his plate before he could finish.

The shinobi laughed and continued eating. This could get interesting.

Sakura

The shrink came into the living room and immediately started giving orders "OK Kakashi. I'll take over the dining room. Send them in by teams. They might feel more comfortable talking around their teammates." Kakashi looked at her incredulously.

"If you say so. I'll be right outside if anyone decides that they don't like shrinks. Which, with this group, is likely to happen." She looked almost frightened for a moment, but she still walked into the dining room. "Alright. Why don't you three go," He said pointing at us.

We got off the couch we were sitting on and went to the dining room.

"Ok. Hello, I'm Saikofujo Ayame and you are?"

"Team 7, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura," I answered

"Alright then sit down." We sat down across from her. "Right so, why don't you tell me a bit about yourselves?"

"Oh well, I had an ordinary childhood and have gotten over my obsessive stalker crush on emo boy over there, so you don't need to talk to me." Which was true. Mostly.

"Are you sure?" I nodded. "Well then what about you Naruto?"

"Let's see. Even though I was an orphan and hated by most of Konoha, I will be Hokage. Believe it!" It never fails.

"And me next I suppose." This should be good. "My brother killed my entire clan, except me. You figure out my mental state." She looked at him with shock written on her face.

"Alright then. Anything else?" We stared back at her blankly "Nothing? Well, I suppose you can go. NEXT!" We went back into the living room and sat down. The next group went in. We talked with the others while the other teams went in. After the last group went in, Kakashi walked in. We heard voices talking, and then suddenly she stormed out of the room. As Kakashi followed after her, she threw her notebook at his head,

"This is the last time I work with teenagers!" _She's_ the crazy one.

Kakashi

Well that was fun. They must have done something.

"What did you all do to her?" They looked at me with innocent "what did I do" expressions. It all meant the same thing. Guilty as charged. "Don't play innocent. I'm harder to fool then that."

"I barely said anything to her." Sasuke said while glaring up at me.

"Well that's what did it. She's a shrink. You were supposed to talk to her. The Hokage is not going to be happy about this. Although I could have done it myself. You all are crazy. I suppose you're all free to go." I walked through the training room out into the backyard where Kurenai was waiting.

"So is everything ready for this afternoon?" She asked.

"It's all set up. This should be fun."

Sakura

I decided to stay in the living room for a while. There wasn't really much else to do. Naruto sat to my left and Sasuke to my right.

"So. Emo boy. What's that supposed to mean?" Sasuke asked.

"Maybe I was exaggerating, but you _do_ have a tendency to be all angsty. And the whole 'must get revenge' thing?"

"That is totally your new nickname Sasuke. Or should I say, 'emo boy'." Naruto laughed. "It's fitting."

"Shut up loser."

"Why don't you make me emo boy?" Naruto and Sasuke glared at each other. If looks could kill, Konoha would be down two idiots.

"Would you two cut it out? You're embarrassing me." They turned their glares to me. Sasuke got up and walked away.

"So, Sakura. What you said in there, about being over emo boy? Were you serious?"

"Yeah I was. He's way too obsessed with getting revenge. Things like girls aren't exactly top priority. But don't think that that means you have a chance with me. You're too immature." Actually it was revenge of a sort. Maybe if I didn't act fan girly, he would like me.

"What makes you think that that was what I was thinking?" I just looked at him cynically. "Ok so it was. What of it?"

"There are other girls then me you know. Girls that actually like you." One that was in this house, sitting across from him. But he was oblivious as usual.

"I doubt it. But whatever. Girls would only slow me down." He smiled at me, but I could tell that he was just putting on a show. "I'm gonna go get something to drink." That was what he said, but he went in the wrong door. As he left, I caught Hinata watching him go. Men are totally ignorant. Hinata made it totally obvious to every one but Naruto. She really did like him too. Not just some silly crush like I had on Sasuke. I decided to help her out. As I sat down next to her, Naruto came out of the dining room.

"Oops wrong room!" What did she see in him? She watched him go into the kitchen and then turned her lavender eyes to me.

"So, Hinata. You really like him don't you?" She turned a very interesting shade of red and shook her head.

"Wh what? I don't. I mean I do bu but not like that."

"Right. I'm sure. Have you tried talking to him? It would help if he knew you were alive."

"I would except every time I see him, I get so nervous. I just couldn't if I tried."

"Why do you get so nervous around him? He's such an idiot."

"I don't know. I just, I try to talk to him, but then the words get stuck in my throat and I get butterflies in my stomach."

"You know what helps when you're nervous about talking to someone? Picturing them in their underwear. Although with the Byakugan you wouldn't really have to imagine it would you?" Hinata promptly turned an alarming shade of red usually reserved for tomatoes. "Or maybe that's why you're always blushing around him. Hinata the closet pervert, who could have imagined."

"Oh no I would never!" It was funny to see how many shades of red could be produced by the human face.

"Hinata, I was just kidding."

"Oh, sorry. Nevermind. But, if you could help me talk to him. Forget it. You probably have other things you wanted to do and I don't want to bother you."

"Nonsense! I would love to help you. It might get Naruto away from me! Hey Ino! You want to give me a hand?"

"With what billboard brow?" As my inner self raged, I bit back my response. Hinata needed my help. It was more important then my rivalry.

"Hinata needs our help with _something_." Ino looked at me in confusion before sudden understanding hit her face.

"Oh, oh. I got you. Hey Tenten, come on. I think we'll need all the help we can get."

Naruto

After I grabbed some water out of the kitchen I decided to go outside. It was sunny and warm today, opposite of my actual mood. But I just wanted some air. Walking my way across the lawn, I thought about what Sakura had said. She was over Sasuke. That was amazing although a little unbelievable. She used to be one of his psycho fan girls. How did she just suddenly get over him? But I still didn't have a chance with her. As these thoughts drifted through my subconscious, I thought I heard whispering coming from a small clump of trees. Great, now I heard trees talking. I was going insane.

_Right as if you weren't hearing voices in your head already. Although I don't know if Kyubbi counts._

Just then, I saw a face peek around a tree. Giggling ensued.

_Trees don't giggle. Do they?_

Suddenly Hinata stepped out from behind a tree. She hesitantly took a step forward. Several arms reached out and pushed her towards me.

"Umm. Hi Na Naruto-kun."

"Hi Hinata. Why are those people hiding behind that tree?"

"Just ignore us. We are the tree spirits." That tree spirit sounded suspiciously like Ino.

"Ino you dork. Hi Naruto we were just leaving." Sakura led Ino and Tenten back into the house.

"Well that was strange. And Sakura thinks _I'm_ weird. So what's up Hinata?"

"Oh nothing really. I ju just wanted to talk." There goes the stuttering again. What is up with that girl?

"What about?"

"About how I'm in love with you and that you shouldn't crush on billboard, I mean Sakura, anymore."

It was like a whole new girl. I was too stunned to speak. I could only stand there, staring at her like an idiot. First she couldn't say anything to me without blushing and now she's confessing her love for me. What the hell? The real shock came when she tried to kiss me. I stepped out of range.

"Who are you and what have you done with Hyuga Hinata?"

"Who says that this isn't the real me? You never really got to know me."

"Yeah cause usually you can't say two words to me without turning bright red and stuttering."

"Yeah, well, things change." She came closer until she was right in my face. "How do you like the new me?"

"Well to be honest, I kind of liked the old you a little more." She suddenly turned bright red and jumped away from me. What is going on?

"I'm sorry Naruto-kun. I I don't know what came over me. Bu but did you really mean that?"

"Yeah I did. But what is going on with you?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all." She glanced back at the house. "When I get a hold of Ino…"

"You just confessed that you're in love with me." Her entire face turned a violent shade of red. "Did you mean that?"

"I I I, don't... well" She took a deep breath. "Yes I did, Naruto." Maybe she was who Sakura was talking about. I had never really thought about Hinata in that way.

But, as she looked at me with those wide lavender eyes, I realized that this was not some crush. She really truly cared for me. I smiled; perhaps this day wasn't going to be as bad as I thought.


	8. Glass

AN: Well finally this chapter is done! I've had writers block for so long! So I know that there are people out there. So review please? Alright well enjoy.

Disclaimer. Been trying but it's still not mine.

Glass

Sora

The dummies head flew across the room after being subjected to another kick. I guess it could only take so much. And I still had anger left to burn. Oh well. I made my way out of the training area to go get some water from the kitchen. As good as kicking the crap out of something was for getting rid of anger, it was thirsty work. I pulled open the refrigerator door and grabbed a bottle. While popping open the cap and guzzling some of the water, I noticed Ino, Sakura and Tenten crowding around one of the windows, staring at something intently.

"Way to go Ino! It worked!" Tenten said enthusiastically.

"Well of course it did. It was my plan. Don't they just make the cutest pair?" Sakura and Tenten agreed. I made my way toward the window to see what they were talking about. Looking over their heads, I saw Hinata and Naruto sitting at the base of a tree talking. Further examination revealed Naruto's arm around Hinata.

"They really do make a cute pair." The girls turned around to look at me. "What did you guys do anyway?"

"Oh Ino just used her Shintenshin no Jutsu to make Hinata admit to Naruto that she's in love with him." Sakura said.

"Really? That's so devious of you. Good job."

"Thanks." She turned her head back to the window as I walked out the door. Then an idea struck me. I might be killed, but at least I would die with my curiosity satisfied.

Temari

My brothers and I had sat in the upstairs living room after the stupid shrink thing. It was useless and unneeded. Although, it was pretty funny when Kankuro told her to fuck off. She really was prying too much. I was surprised that Gaara didn't kill her. Some part of me wanted him to, if only for my own entertainment. Speaking of him, he was being unusually weird. Even for him. She had the nerve to ask him how close he was to his family. Kankuro said something about only our father being left and she asked Gaara how he felt about that. In any normal universe, she would be dead. I think it had something to do with that cloud kunoichi.

"So, Gaara, what's up with you and that Sora girl?" He glared in my general direction and made a vaguely growl-like sound before turning back to glaring at the wall. Whatever was going on, it obviously wasn't going well. "Yeah, yeah, I know, too stoic to talk to my sister. You'll never get her acting that way." As his head swiveled my direction I cursed my big mouth. After a few seconds, I realized I was still alive.

"I suppose you have a point," he sighed. I blinked. _What did he just say?_ Kankuro and I looked at each other, his shocked face mirroring my own.

"She does?" Kankuro said confusedly.

"Of course I do you idiot! I just can't believe you agree with me Gaara."

He opened his mouth, as if to reply, but he froze. He blinked and looked around.

"Ok. Let's see. Hmm. That's interesting." Confusion joined the shock on our faces. _Gaara has officially lost it_. "Aww! He really does like her! Oh sorry guys, I'm only visiting!"

Kankuro got up and slowly backed away. I was beginning to consider doing the same when Gaara shook his head and a confused expression came over his face.

"What the hell was that?" _Oh yeah, he's lost it alright. _He stood up and started walking to the stairs.

"Wait just a damn minute! Gaara what the hell is going on?" I said. And damned be the consequences.

"I have a girl to hurt." With those endearing words, he walked off.

"Ten ryu says he's lost it completely." A clump of sand flew up the stairs and hit Kankuro on the head. _Brothers_

Sora

We had sat on the roof of the building facing ours so that Ino had a clear shot into the upstairs window. Apparently, any sort of devious plot interested the lot of them, even if there was a small chance of death. I didn't particularly want to defend them, but oh well. I could just say I forced them into it. Although if what I suspected was true, why would he kill me? A hand waved itself in front of my face. Looking up I saw that the hand was attached to Sakura. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts, I didn't even notice when Ino went unconscious.

"Ahhh. Glad you could rejoin us Sora. It is because of you that we're doing this ya know."

"Actually Sakura, Ino is the only one doing anything." Tenten said.

"Whatever. Not that I care, but what did you tell Ino to find out?" Sakura asked eagerly.

"Nothing that you would be interested in I'm sure." I replied. We sat in silence until Ino came to.

"Guess what Sora! He likes you. Hell, he practically loves you. He just doesn't know why and is scared of… something. I couldn't get a clear read on that."

"Thanks Ino! Now you guys might want to get out of here. He won't be too happy about this." Tenten and Sakura exchanged a look, probably wondering if they should be worried. Ino grabbed their arms and dragged them off. I moved to the edge of the roof to await Gaara's arrival. A few minutes later the front door was flung open and out came the red head. I jumped down from my perch to meet him.

"I'm guessing you had the blond invade my head?" Gaara said while glaring at me.

"Yeah, I talked her into it. Don't blame her. I wanted to know what was up with you."

"You couldn't have just asked me?" He crossed his arms across his chest.

"Tried to. Failed. So you like me. What are you scared of?"

"It doesn't concern you. Just forget whatever you learned."

"Umm. It kinda does concern me."

"No it doesn't. Now just drop it." His glare deepened, trying to intimidate me.

"NO! I won't drop it! Just tell me what the hell is going on." I shouted at him.

"No damn it! I'm not someone you should get involved with."

"Maybe I don't care. Maybe I like to live on the edge."

"Then you're idiotic. Haven't you learned from your past? Dangerous people are not to be messed with. Or do you like abuse?" He snapped. I felt my face contort into an expression of rage. My arm extended and lightning arced from my palm aimed at him.

A wall of sand shot up to intercept the bolt. The lightning stuck the wall in a flash of light. I looked away momentarily. When I looked back there was a wall of grainy, red tinted glass in front of him.

"Well that's never happened before." I heard him mutter. A whirlwind of sand spun around him and he disappeared. _I think I know how to beat the ultimate defense. _Spinning around, I kicked the wall, sending shards of glass flying to the wall. I grinned as I walked around to the door.

Shikamaru

_The clouds are really nice today._ I thought to my self as I lay in the backyard. No one had come out there since Naruto chasing Kiba yelling about his ramen or something. Troublesome little twits. But after that, no one. Just me and the clouds, just the way I like it. _That one kinda looks like a fish_

The fish cloud intrigued me so much that it took three girls tripping on and landing on me to wake me from my reverie. And who else was leading the charge but, Ino.

"You're going to be the death of me one of these days Ino. Don't you look where you're going?"

"Why are you laying in my path?" Ino yelled as Sakura and Tenten pushed themselves off of the pile. Ino soon joined them in standing.

"Sorry about that Shikamaru, we weren't paying attention." Sakura said

"Well do me and my guts a favor and pay attention. Troublesome girls."

"You know what! You can just take your 'troublesome' and. Let go of me! I'm not though with him! The lazy bum…" Sakura and Tenten pulled her away, still spouting insults in my direction.

"And my father wonders why I think girls are too much trouble."

"Oh really?" Cursing my big mouth, I turned to look at Temari as she came through the door. She sat down next to me, smiling that devious little smile of hers.

"Yeah. You, for example, are insane amounts of trouble. More then your really worth." She smacked me upside the head. "And I'm just too lazy to avoid getting hit." She glared at me.

"You know ya love me." She laughed a bit like she made a joke. She had a horrible sense of humor, which was good, since I wasn't a comedian or something. That fact combined with the fact that she could see through opening lines like glass and figure out the punch line, kind of killed it.

"So what brings you out to this fabulous place? Here to annoy me to death?"

"No, nothing so fun. The imbecile guys in there were talking about… weird stuff."

"Like what?'

"How that Shino guy has bugs living in his body. They were curious about…" I quickly cut her off.

"Never mind. I've heard that particular conversation before. It's the never ending debate with them. Some of the theories..." I added a shiver for emphasis.

"I'll take your word for it. So how are the clouds today?" She said as she leaned back on her elbows and tilted her face back to the sky. That was her best quality, she liked cloud watching too.

"Terrific."


	9. Status update

Hey guys! Sorry about the long wait. I had the next chapter all ready to upload, but my computer crashed and somethings wrong with it. It'll be fixed soon and the chapter will be up. Library computers aren't really good for fic writing! I think that the computer was conspiriring against me. Or my dad downloaded a virus. It's been known to happen. Anyway, I'm so sorry! 


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